Emeralds and Espionage

Gems and Espionage #1

by Lynn Gardner

Romance, danger, suspense, murder, an explosion or two. . . it's all here, woven expertly into an action-packed romantic thriller you won't soon forget! Here's the Nothing is what it seems. Allison Alexander, home in California on a brief vacation from her work at the United States, is shot at and pursued by mysterious intruders who have taken over the estate on which she and her mother have lived as caretakers since Allison was a child. Thus begins a terror-filled week during which she discovers that nearly everyone she loves is involved in some way with an International espionage ring â but are they the good guys or the bad? Is Bart, the man she has loved since they played together as children, a secret government agent â or does he answer to an underworld crime boss? If she doesn't go along with his unbelievable scheme, will it cost them their lives? Does he really love her, or is he just using her? And what in the world is a Mormon bishop doing in the middle of all this?

Genres: Lds Fiction, Mystery, Romance, Lds, Suspense, Fiction, Adventure

252 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1995

Reviews

[Mummy Cat Claire · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book came to me as a book club choice. I had never heard of this book, nor the series. The book wasn't awful but there were too many things that bothered me about the story to give it any more stars than two. The book starts off very fast. The reader is thrown into the book with new characters that are never really explained. Allison is the main character that is followed throughout the book, but the reader is also introduced to multiple characters with no new character development. Although things are mentioned in the book that give clues into who Allison is and how her past has helped make her who she is, there still wasn't enough to really make me like her or care about her. I found Allison confusing. It seemed like her character was just thrown together.

The story centers around Margot's house, where Allison lives. It is a large estate, with many cool features. Like a million secret passages in the house, the landscape has a large tree, "The General", a water fall and the estate is just off the ocean so there is a private beach. Allison's life is disrupted by pirates who comes ashore into Margo's house. In the first part of the book, Allison hides in many different areas and spies on the pirates. She discovers Bart and he captures her and convinces her to go with him. Bart tells Allison that he is here to save her and she needs to trust him and follow his lead. During all this, Allison learns that he long lost father is alive.
I liked how the author created a sort of telepathy between father and daughter. Total, magical realism but it was a fun story line to add in there.
As Bart and Allison go to Greece to save her mother, dad holds down the fort at Margo's house.

There are plane crashes, scuba diving in the dark waters, car crashes and military escapes. I feel like the story was good. I wasn't bored while reading it. I just couldn't push back the things I didn't like about the book.

1) There is a story line added into the book that I think the author should have eliminated. Two children from the Thailand empire were kidnapped by the pirates. Allison goes in to rescue them but then leaves them outside, in a tree, unattended, little food, and no adult supervision and these children at 9 and 5. NO!~ just NO! The mom in me says freakin NO!
This story line really bothered me. Totally irresponsible.
2) When Bart grabs Allison, he convinces her to leave the estate and go to breakfast with him. Her reaction is to go, with no thought of the children. When asked how her food is, she responds:

"Fantastic, as always. I should probably have been too upset by all this to eat, but lack of food in the last couple of days had left me ravenous."

3) The story is written through Allison's eyes. Even through this, I never really got to know her. She was a sensible person, for the most part, but I never really cared about her. I followed her story but I never really cared about what happened to her. Same with the other characters. There just wasn't that connection.
4) Bart convinces Allison to trust him and to follow along with his plan to destroy the pirates. She agrees but the plot kinda confuses her and leaves a bitter taste in her mouth. She then finds it hard to believe what is real and what is fake. This story line bothered me. It just rubbed me the wrong way. I don't really want to give it away and tell everyone what he convinced her to do, but I will say that I don't agree with his reasoning and ploys and I don't think it was a great motivator and way to make her like and trust him.
5) The inclusion of the LDS Bishop and the new found faith of Bart, is something that continues on in the subsequent stories. I had a bookclub member explain this to me. That part of the story seemed to not make much sense and things were left unexplained in this book.
6)I found parts of the book to be confusing. I had to re-read the passages over a few times to understand what was going on. At one point, it seemed that a character was killed but later addressed and asked to do something. Another book club member told me I was wrong, that the character wasn't killed. But still...
7)The author tries to explain the children's neglect by saying that their father wants them to know what "it's like to live in the real world, to become independent and self-reliant, and not to depend on palace guards or protect them." That this experience of neglect was probably fun and exciting to them. I'm calling total and udder B freakin S on this story line. Lame.

Overall, this book was okay. It didn't spark much discussion in book club and I have no plans to continue on in the series. This book is fine as a stand alone. Most everything was wrapped up in the end, excluding what I mentioned above. I wouldn't recommend this book. But the other book club members did enjoy it and told me it was an exciting, clean read.

Content: clean, except neglect of children ;)

[Johyne' · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is preposterous. That is the word that kept coming to me while reading it. The dialogue is stilted and unnatural (nobody talks like these characters--eg.: "Have you a plan?"). The story asks you to take wild leaps of logic, like believing that the protagonist can communicate telepathically with her long-lost spy father--and no one is very surprised by this. Oh, and let's throw in some kidnapped children who are future royalty who are able to take care of themselves in the woods with some blankets and food, left alone for days. The character development is weak. The drama and danger the main characters are in seems very fabricated and not fleshed out. It's just...ridiculous. I don't understand how this is a popular series of books. I think the author, while well-intentioned, wrote about things she thought sounded exciting but that she, herself, knew nothing about and could not make believable. I do think she gave a valiant effort, and it's not a terrible book. But it's frustrating to try and read.

[Courtney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy crap i loved this book! it was amazing. She always had my attention and it was also a real page turner. I would read this again and again. this book was well written and i would reccomend this to any one who likes mysteries and adventure.

[Samantha Ogden · Rating 5 out of 5]

You got to love good romances.

[Charissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This suspense-romance was a super good story. The plot, the characters, the cool setting. I loved all of those. I was pulled in and read the story super quick, not wanting to put it down. It was a fun ride, with lots of mystery, action, suspense, and some good twists and heart yanking to keep me intrigued. My only hangup for it was the editing. I can overlook a decent amount of typos and mistakes, but this one had them throughout the whole book. Bart, one of the characters, is called Ban, Bat, and other things that were confusing at times, until I realized it wasn’t nicknames, but just typos. There were lots of other typos and some editing flaws with paragraphs being oddly placed or broken up in the middle. I wouldn’t have minded a few of these, but it was more than I could take after a while Dampened my enjoyment enough to knock it from a 5 to a 4. If it was edited better, I would’ve ranked it higher. It’s still a well-written book. Just needed a better editor.

[Susan Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just a plain and simple good read. Just mooshy enough, with just enough twist.

[Whitney · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is probably the worst book I’ve ever read. The writing is so poor it feels like a first draft that no one edited. How it got published is beyond me. There is zero plot or character development. The entire novel feels like she’s flitting to from one plot point to the next without actually connecting them or developing the story in any way. The “surprises” we’re super obvious and I didn’t even care about it once it was revealed. Allison’s feelings about her father that turn into full blown telepathy is just stupid. The part that bugged me the most/ made me laugh the most is how she would be in this incredibly dangerous situation and then just go get breakfast, demand a wedding brunch, a hot bubble bath etc. She’d be like “guess I’m going to die tomorrow, oh well guess I’ll take a bubble bath or guess I just got shot at and left these two children in a tree and found my old friend I haven’t heard from in 5 years, oh well guess I’ll just go out to breakfast!” I never would have picked this book up or finished it but I read it for my book club so I powered through. The title should probably be emeralds and crap and more crap because that’s a better description of the book. Sorry Lynn gardener, no more of your books for me.

[Mallory · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing of this book was quite terrible, especially toward the beginning. There were also parts of the book that were just so completely unbelievable that I was just like, really?! And it really annoyed me how she was SO obsessed with her father's disappearance. I mean, seriously, she finds these two kidnapped kids and right in the middle of her running away, she's thinking, "Where is my dad?" If I were running away from some kidnappers trying to hide some kids, I don't think i would be thinking about my dad at that point.

I know this is by an LDS author, but really, in the middle of all this running away, being shot at, Bart is trying to tell her about his conversion story "You know those questions, we used to have, where we came from, why we're here, and where we're going? Well I found those answers, but I can't tell you right now because there's people shooting at us." It was a little too corny for me. The plot was pretty good, I guess. It made me finish the book, but the details of the plot were so far fetched.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know this book is cheesy but I can't help that I love it. It was the beginning of my love for stories like "Alias". Love and spies... Can't get enough of it. I'm not much for LDS authors truthfully but I couldn't help loving stories of espionage. I also love Bart. Yes, even with the name Bart. I read this book when I was 11 and I've probably read it 20+ times since. Maybe I've romanticized it since I loved it as a young girl but nonetheless, Bart was my first love and Allison was my idol. Yep- I'm invested. :)

[Ange · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my favorite book I've read. I thought the characters could have been developed a bit better, and the attempt to inject some religion into this story just came across as misplaced and "off". I'm not a big fan of this genre though so take my review with a grain of salt.

[Christina · Rating 1 out of 5]

The writing is absolutely terrible--choppy, disorienting, confusing. Worse, the story didn't reel me in and keep me hooked. I didn't feel anything for the characters, I didn't feel anything they felt, because the author forgot the cardinal rule of creative writing: "Show, don't tell."

Thr storyline is also very improbable, but if you can get over the poor writing it's a fine story. No language, sex, excessive violence (only gunshots, explosions, and threats), or anything inappropriate to worry about.

[Debora Baird · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't even finish reading it, this book was written so poorly. Every other sentence was in italics and ended with an exclamation point. You couldn't follow the plot or who was doing what. It made no sense that the character would get shot at, find 2 kidnapped children, leave them in a tree, then go off and have breakfast at a restaurant and comment on how delicious the food was and how beautiful the ocean was. I haven't read this bad of writing in a long time. And it makes me sad to see yet another example of clean fiction equating with the inability to create a decent book.

[Kendra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an amazing book. From the minute I started it I could not put it down. It was intense from the very beginning to the very end. It was a very quick read because you can't get through it fast enough to find out what happens. My advice is not to start it unless you have time to finish it because you won't want to put it down.

[Nikita · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh man. There is a big difference between reading this book in Jr. High verses now. The writing is pretty terrible, the story is very rough, the dialog is forced, the inner thoughts are just laughable and the action is poorly visualized. Not to mention all the Mormon teasers thrown in. However, for posterity sake, and the fact that I own the entire series, I'm going to reread the next one haha

[Rayni · Rating 2 out of 5]

The beginning book of a series about a young woman who has lost her father early in her life. I thought it the storyline of the book highly implausible.

[Kris Wells · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book started out a little rough for me. It seemed so unrealistic, I had trouble paying attention. As I got more into it though, I did enjoy the story.

[Amy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hmm. Nostalgic re-read. Disappointed to find I don’t need to revisit it again. Probably wouldn’t recommend to teen or YA readers now having read it as an adult and finding much to be desired.

Wow, were we thrown in at the beginning. Didn’t find the protagonist very likable or intelligent.
Who was surprised Margo and Margaret were the same person, and then Antonio and Tony?
Never fleshed out the Milton relationship, nor does he know about her new engagement and marriage!!
Too many instances of “he tilted my chin up” and so many surprise kisses
Descriptions of places felt like reading encyclopedia entries, vague, “new drug”, “new chemical”, etc, doesn’t feel like the author is an SME
Unbelievable military assistance
References to religion were awkward and cheesy in beginning, and only slightly improved as it continued—at one point talking about God and giving aggressive nonconsensual surprise kisses at the same time
As another reviewer said, the kidnapped children plot was horribly neglectful and unnecessary
Just what I want the love of my life to like about me: “I was kept alive by the memory of a saucy, smart-mouthed college girl”
Her love gives her “Princess” as a nickname
Story mostly unbelievable, vocalized by characters at times especially after they took out a dozen men in 15 minutes or so…”I’m surprised you were able to dispatch them so quickly and easily”

[Anna Shiverdecker · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was my best friend's favorite book in junior high. She has since grown in taste but it took me this long to get around to trying it for myself. I think I might have really liked it in junior high, but now, not so much. It was fun, but it also was very poorly written, mostly just very sloppy. It felt like reading a very rough first draft. A lot of things just did not make sense. And there was no resolution to the relationship at the end. It just kinda got left on a shelf. Also, the weird telepathy thing felt VERY out of place. A lot of things did, but especially that. And it was never explained. Just like a lot of things. Overall, a bad book, but easy to read and fun if you are able to ignore a lot.

[Aubree · Rating 3 out of 5]

I haven’t read these books in YEARS (at least not since I started using Goodreads like 12 years ago) and as I am currently in the mood for comfort reads (it’s the quarantine of 2020) I decided to revisit this first one. I still liked it even though it’s not an amazing book. It’s a romantic adventure that can easily be read in just a couple of hours. It’s fun and exciting. Good escape reading. The telepathy between Allison and her dad is weird but I’m willing to overlook it for the sake of nostalgia for my teenage self who loooooved these.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think something was wrong with my audiobook recording because it seemed like I kept missing details - like I was listening to every other chapter...maybe it was an abridgment? (I just verified that it was an abridgment; too bad it was so poorly condensed.) It was much shorter than I expected as well, only 3.25 hours for a 252-page book. Perhaps I'll have to try it again and see if that was so because the plot had lots of possibilities, and some interesting moments, just SO MANY holes! Next time I'll read the unabridged version and likely necessarily rewrite this post.

[Kylie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was intriguing and had some fun twists. It was very lighthearted, even in light of the dangerous situations. I was annoyed by Alli's "telepathic connection" with one of the characters and thought that made the book lose some realism and made her less relatable. Cool book, though, and I read it really fast. I am eager to read the rest of the series.

[Kristine Bullen]

Great Series! Good mix of suspense, action and romance

Kindle edition unlike print does have a lot of little editing errors. That aside, this series is a go to one if mine. So well written and researched. I think I have read the books at least four times in the past twenty years (as they became available.)

[Sherri · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wont be reading the next one

Disconnected, story lines thrown in that didn't really serve a purpose. It felt like my 9 yr old was telling g me a story that just wouldnt end. Fixes were too easy and you could the "twists" a mile away. Also, horrible grammar and frequent misspellings. Pulled me in fast and them fell flat, it was a lot of work to finish it.

[Jennifer Tidwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can tell that this was the first book written by the author as there is a lack of descriptive words and explanation. But without that the story moved really quickly and held my attention. This is probably a YA, which means it is basic writing, moves very quickly, and held my attention. This was a great story with twists and turns. I am interested to keep reading the series.

[Nicole Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

My brother and I listened to an audio version of this on a recent road trip as a stroll down memory lane.

It was fun to hear again and to remember the times we read / listened to this series as a family while growing up.

There were a few plot holes that I hadn't noticed the first time (or don't remember at this point?) but still fun!

[Nicole Cammans · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a nostalgic read for me! This is my second, maybe third time reading it through. I enjoy the light suspense and while it is technically a romantic thriller, it makes this mystery-loving gal happy! There are a couple of plot holes, I didn’t love how “moral of the story” the ending was, but overall it’s a page-turner that encourages curiosity.

[Charly Troff (JustaReadingMama) · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I read these books in middle school, I loved them! I couldn't get enough. Coming back to reread them, I see their flaws, but I still think they're worth the read. They are fast paced, clean, educational, and easy, quick reads.

[Hailey Fackrell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was good, but in some ways cheesy. I think Lynn Gardner could have done a better job with character development and connecting plot points together. Other than that, it was an exciting quick-read!

[Brooke Maxfield · Rating 2 out of 5]

I remember reading this in junior high, and loved the series. As a reread as an adult though... This was rough. The plot didn't make any sense, there was a lot of scenes that felt like they had no connection besides being for "drama". It is a clean read though, so that's a big plus.

[Mikayla Stettler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the story idea but the way it's written sometimes feels rushed. Honestly, I think I only reread this book because I like the rest of the series and this sets it up. It's an easy read and though it has suspense, adventure and action, it is a nice read for a vacation.